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Last month Lansing Drilling Committee Chairman Larry Beck presented recommendations to the Lansing Town Board on what steps need to be taken to protect the town from consequences of hydrofracking on town resources.  He recommended the Town pass a moratorium on drilling to allow time to accomplish those tasks.  Wednesday the board met to discuss the pros and cons of imposing a moratorium and what it would mean to the town.

"We are going to move toward a moratorium and putting that in place before (New York State) starts to permit," says Town Supervisor Kathy Miller.  "I do believe that we can get the comprehensive plan and the land use ordinance under control."

Town Attorney Guy Krogh underlined the uncertainty about whether or not laws temporarily or permanently banning drilling will stand up in court.  He said arguments can be made on both sides and it is impossible to predict what judges will decide.  That said he recommended that if the board wants to impose a moratorium that it do so for one year, even if the members think some of the tasks they want to accomplish will take longer than that.  He said a moratorium can be extended if needed.

"There is a cost and risk to doing something and there is a cost and risk to doing nothing," he said.  "That is what you have to weigh.  If you do nothing you know there will be road impacts. It's happened in every state in which gas drilling has occurred."

Krogh explained there is overlapping authority in state law that is not going to be answered by the current Dryden or Middlefield litigation or by Senator Seward's proposed bill and other things that are out there to deal with the environmental conservation law preemption question.  He also said that he doesn't think a moratorium has been challenged yet in New york State, which makes it harder to predict how defensible a moratorium will be if challenged in court.

Councilman Ed LaVigne asked whether a ban on heavy industry would include contractors or farmers.  Krogh said no.  LaVigne then asked whether Lansing could see other towns' moratorium language and learn the results of those attempts to temporarily ban drilling.  Krogh said it would be valuable to talk to those other town officials especially to learn about unintended consequences of their moratoriums.

While LaVigne said he does not oppose a moratorium he said he would want to be prepared to make the most of the time with a list of specific tasks that can be accomplished within the time period specified before imposing it.  He said that if those tasks will take more than a year, the moratorium should be imposed for a greater time period in the interest of transparency in government.

"We have a wonderful list of things that we want done," he said.  "I would hope that a year would be enough for those things to happen. If they can't happen in a year I think we need to know that before we vote on this.  Once this moratorium starts, then the clock is ticking."

Krogh noted that some of the tasks will likely take more than a year.  He cited aquifer studies that need to include seasonal variations and often take more than a year.  But he said that imposing an initial moratorium for a year and then extending it beyond that length of time is more defensible if the Town can show it has made a good faith effort to accomplish its work during the first year and has a solid plan for completing it.  He gave the example of an aquifer study that is in progress with an estimated completion time would qualify as a credible good faith effort.


LaVigne advocated waiting until the Board can be specific about the work that needs to be done, who will do it, and the time needed to complete it before passing the moratorium.  But Deputy Supervisor Robert Cree noted that the Town has an estimated month and a half to put a moratorium in place before the State allows permitting.  Doing so after permitting begins would be legally more problematic.

Krogh said that it is important to look at exactly what you are placing a moratorium on and what legs it stands on.  He said it is more defensible to look at multiple 'legs' such as defining aquifers, road use and potential damage and repair, wetlands, clean air.  He said these are areas where localities are given explicit jurisdiction over.  That includes smaller wetlands that the Town has jurisdiction over and the state DEC does not.

"We do have precedent," Krogh noted.  "Cargill's trucks are lighter than what you would see from the gas drilling process.  When the State established a detour on Drake Road, Drake Road was destroyed.  The State and the Town fought about who should pay to repair Drake Road.  The State won.  Be that as it may we do have a history of what happens when these trucks leave the state highway system."

Miller said the Town should not wait to begin work on updating the comprehensive plan, creating a land use ordinance, and the other work.  She said this can be started even before a moratorium is imposed.  She said she wants a representative from every zoning area in town, including agriculture zones to work on the comprehensive plan to form a committee that really represents Lansing.

"No matter what we need to work on the comprehensive plan regardless of a moratorium," she said.  "We have to work on the land use ordinance regardless of a moratorium.  And we need to work on the water stuff.  We need to get those things going while we're working on the moratorium."

Drilling Committee Chairman Larry Beck said that his committee is planning a sign-in form for next Thursday's drilling information meeting and offered to solicit committee members on that form with a place to indicate interest.

Wednesday's meeting was a working session in which no official action is taken.  The soonest a moratorium could be imposed would be the February 15th Town Board meeting. 

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